Carve a Jack O Lantern For Fall

After years of promising myself I'd carve one, I finally made good on it and carved this manly pumpkin.

First,
I selected what I found to be a profoundly charming pumpkin from the
grocery. Notice the bend in the back and that fun curl on top. This
pumpkin isn't playing around!

Next
it was time to cut out his "cap" and scoop out the seeds. I selected a
short bladed knife for better control and made my incisions slowly and
carefully. Also, laying down a newspaper is a pretty good idea if you
want to stay in good graces with the lady in your life, men.

I scooped my pumpkin's guts into a bowl with a metal spoon. I roasted the seeds later for a nice snack.

Metal
spoons are better in this case because it is a lot easier to scrape the
inner flesh of the pumpkin with one. See those dangley spaghetti like
strands? You won't get those off with a wooden spoon.

The
next part is tricky. I decided to draw out my design by lightly scoring
the flesh of the pumpkin with my knife. You may want to use a pencil or
a dry erase marker.

After
drawing out the form I very slowly and meticulously began to carve in
the facial features. My first strokes went only a little deeper than my
initial scoring. I didn't want to completely break through until I had
made a few passes.

After the face is carved out, you'll need to clean up your edges. Then...

Voila!
It's a Jack-O-Lantern! I think he turned out great with lots of
character and a slightly menacing look. You may want a more traditional
look and that's awesome too. Just have fun with it.

Share this with others.

I'm hopelessly addicted to art.

It all started when I was four years old, sitting at the side of my Dad's drafting table, watching his large blocky hand deftly guide a slender tapered brush, damp with ink, across a sheet of smooth bristol. I fell in love that day, and it's a passion that has only been nurtured and fed over time.

Of course, now I'm a dad and it's my blocky hands moving those brushes across the page.

Thanks so much for taking a look at work. If you are interested in working together, please contact me at dffinley(at)gmail.com.